FF Tactics Advance: Review

This is my second playthrough so I already know the knack of the game and how to do things faster. The game’s idea and plot is rather childish compared to the main FF instalments since it involves being “spirited away” to a game which is ironically also called “Final Fantasy.” Alta oron sondus kameela. *snap* and Ivalice turned into a big country. Meanwhile, Marche started to find his way back home while encountering at the same his friends whom doesn’t want to forsake the given chance to live in their “dream world.”

Of course since this is made for a Gameboy Advance, there is nothing much to expect about the graphics and other stuffs but I guess they still made a good game even though there are restrictions.

And so, I finished FF TA once again because of boredom. Out of all the Final Fantasy instalments, I can say that the Tactics titles are the only ones I can appreciate even though I repeat playing it endlessly. Hmm, why did I say so? Well, story-wise it is very shallow compared to the main FF instalments (FF TA — that is, but not FF T) but it is not boring when it comes to strategy since it is always different and unpredictable every game play. Actually, I can tell that this game play is my best play since I’ve got all the rare stuffs from turfs and missions. I think this is the first time I actually mastered a job with a star manually without cheating and that is my Vierra character (Fencer and Elementalist). Secret character-wise, I’ve got Eldena only which is boring. What I ENJOYED THE MOST is my Blue Mage although I wasn’t able to master all of his skills. Completing Blue Mage’s skill set has always been fun. The very boring part of course is the stealing part which I didn’t do since it will take a lot of freaking hours.

I’m glad I was able to acquire good mythril items since it made my final boss fight a ‘lil fast by just shutting in the enemy and do my instant death mighty combo 😉 . My longest battle would be during the confrontation with Ritz because I stripped all their rare equipments XD.

For those who are reading the FAQs for stealing in GameFaqs, I’ve read there that in order to gain Steal:Weapon earlier, you’ll do a very stress-FULL of missions just to achieve something then something follows. Anyway, I don’t believe that one must do this just to have decent equipments since you can have those maces(Mandragora and Lotus) through rewards in other missions. Cinqueda can wait till the end since I think it is the strongest dagger in the game.

I don’t wish to have a 3rd playthrough any more. I’ve done lots of job variations already and I don’t know what to have else any more. (I think it would be fun to make a party of magicians and casters).

Okay, let’s go back to the characters. Mewt is such a selfish spoiled brat. Although you can point your finger as well to Marche, Mewt has the upper hand here which makes it unfair if he’ll be the one to stay forever in HIS dream world. Ritz, who has a kind of idiotic reason as well(which has something to do with her hair colour) is also interfering. Doned’s situation is understandable because it would really be a shame if you finally been able to walk but you’ll probably go back to being lethargic once again… Mewt on the other hand got his selfish wish to have his mother back to life at the cost of rendering other people’s lives. Luckily at the end, he finally realized his own selfishness and finally closed the chapters of the dream world.

Regarding to what happened to Montblanc, Nono, Ezel, Babus, Shara and others, I presume they really have disappeared when Mewt closed the book. Since the game could be continued even after the final fight in the Ivalice dream world, it could also be assumed that the two worlds began to coexist but Marche and the others haven’t really decided to go back yet and thus, the dream world still continued to exist.